Post-Pardum Blues

The first-person point of view in "The Yellow Wallpaper" allows the reader to see the wife's steady decline into insanity and how it was brought about. It also let the reader sympathize with the wife. The story predates the suffrage movement, and therefore gives us a glimpse into how women were treated and the challenges they had to overcome during those times.

We learn from the main character that she has a vivid imagination. She likes to think the house is haunted and compares the gardens to those "English places you read about...". She is intelligent, has a sense of humor, and is a bit neurotic. We find out she has just given birth and she has a "condition" which is the reason they are occupying the estate.

You can see the steady descend into insanity as the narrator is held hostage in the room with the yellow wallpaper. At first she hates it, then she begins to relate to it. Without any interaction from the outside world she begins to make her own. Her husband warns her not to give in to her inclinations but it is all she has. The rest cure is suppose to eliminate all distractions and restrict any form of activity which is ironic because it is the reason she goes mad. You start seeing the descend when she describes the wallpaper as something evil and hideous. With each entry she loses touch with reality, becomes more anti-social, and begins to exhibit bizarre behavior. At the end of the third entry you realize how advanced her psychosis has become when she tries to determine whether the front or the back patterns are moving together or separately.

The story takes on a new meaning when she begins to see a woman in the wallpaper. She draws parallels from her life to the woman trapped in the paper and begins to understand her own situation. The woman in the paper is her alter-ego. At this point she has totally lost touch with reality and ultimately goes insane. Seeing her progression into madness is disturbing but you understand how it came about. Society at the time severely restricted women, her husband treated her like a child patient, her every suggestion is disregarded and she is held captive in an asylum. I would probably go insane too.